Shalit comes home

After five years of captivity at the hands of Hamas, Israeli Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit has finally come home.

Shalit was released Tuesday. An agreement brokered on Oct. 11 between Israel and Hamas leaders to swap the 25-year-old soldier for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners is a "done deal."

"We will return Gilad healthy and whole to his family and all of Israel," Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "The negotiations were difficult. We had to make difficult decisions. With all the change taking place in the Middle East, we did not know if a better deal or any deal would have been possible."

The South Florida Jewish community, as well as the Jewish Diaspora around the globe, reacted to the news with joyous relief.

"Gilad Shalit's tragic captivity pained Israelis as well as Jews worldwide who have continued to pray, petition and lobby for his release," Andrew Rosenkranz, Anti-Defamation League Florida regional director noted.

"While Shalit's impending release comes with a heavy price, it is the right thing to do and we share the great sense of relief felt by his family and the people of Israel," Rosenkranz said. "This was a very difficult decision for Israel's leaders, but in this case the price of freedom for Shalit and Israel's dedication to saving the lives of each citizen-soldier superseded the unmerited release of terrorists."

Shalit, age 19 at the time, was abducted from Israeli territory on June 25, 2006 by a Hamas terrorist group while guarding a security post in Israel. The unprovoked attack killed two other Israeli soldiers and wounded four.

After tunneling into Israel from Egypt, Hamas and two other groups, Al-Nasir Salah al-Din Brigades and The Army of Islam, grabbed Shalit and dragged him over the border into the Gaza Strip. Though wounded, Hamas denied Shalit medical attention or visits by the International Red Cross, family or any humanitarian group, in violation of the Geneva Convention.

During his five years of captivity, Shalit has been the focus of annual commemorations and rallies throughout the South Florida Jewish community.

At Temple Menorah in Miami Beach there has been one empty chair on the bima for the entire five years in honor of the kidnapped soldier. The seat "was reserved for Gilad Shalit," Rabbi Eliot Pearlson said.

"On Rosh Hashanah here at Temple Menorah we dedicated the last blasts of the shofar each day to Gilad Shalit," he said. "One cannot sit anywhere in our shul without seeing the special seat dedicated to Gilad Shalit. The chair is draped in a tallit, and holds a Torah and prayer book inscribed to Gilad."

Eric Stillman, president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Broward is overjoyed by the news.

"We feel that our prayers are being answered with the impending release of Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in Gaza," he said. "We have continued to press this case because it's as if a member of our own family has been held in captivity and it will be a wonderful miracle to have him free and home at least in Israel."

However, Carol Flatto, South Florida chapter chairperson of Americans for a Safe Israel, believes Israel may have paid too high a price for the release of Shalit.

"Although our hearts go out to Gilad Shalit and his family, the exchange of 1000 terrorists for Shalit is too dangerous for Israel and therefore should not have been made," she noted. "Having 1,000 unrepentant Arab terrorists on the loose in Israel will be a constant threat to the safety of Israelis. It is a slap in the face for the families of the victims of those murderers.

"Furthermore, it is a disincentive to the security forces who worked so hard to capture them," Flatto said. "The deal should not have been made."